Major capture: Mexican authorities released this photo of Miguel Angel Trevino, also known as Z-40.

Supplied: Mexican Interior Ministry

Mexican marines have captured the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, in a city bordering the US, according to officials.

Trevino, alias Z-40, was detained in Nuevo Laredo, the north-eastern Tamaulipas state city bordering Texas, along with two other people.

"They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday," an official from the federal attorney-general's office said on condition of anonymity.

An interior ministry official also confirmed the arrest.

The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organised crime groups in Mexico, founded by former soldiers and known for their brutality.

Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in recent years, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.

Many of the worst atrocities in the drug war have been blamed on the Zetas, including the massacre of dozens of migrants in northern Mexico in 2010 and the dumping of 49 decapitated bodies near the city of Monterrey last year.